<E30> More on Transmission Problem

["Mike Theuri" <mikesoft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had an opportunity to gather a little more information 
from my friend on his transmission (5 speed) problem
as well as educate myself on basic parts of the tranny
from a diagram that I found on the E30 page. The link 
is :

http://www.eskimo.com/~dalus/bmw/images/SS.jpg

The selector rod (5) is visible from one end while under
the car and the end that is connected to the shift lever
appears to be held in place by the Circlip (7). The 
mystery comes in where the rod "disappears" to as it
is blocked from view by the transmission housing, 
as  I mentioned in my earlier post (in layman's terms), I 
had initially suspected that the Circlip (7) on the front part of
the selector rod (the part that cannot be seen) might
have gotten loose or popped out but that couldn't be 
confirmed as being the problem without pulling down the 
tranny. There's a part that isn't shown in the diagram and 
this is the part that is towards the engine and the part 
that the selector rod (5) joins to. I had explained in my
earlier post what happened but I will include some excerpts
just to make the thread easier to refer to. Another friend's
Saab  9000 had a similar problem only this time one 
could see the problem which was a clip had gotten out, 
he fixed it by putting in a piece of wire and managed to
drive to Texas before driving all the way to New Jersey like 
that and suprised the mechanics in NJ when they heard 
about his makeshift arrangement. I haven't heard from my
friend yet regarding plans to take his car to the mech. 
anytime soon, I guess he's waiting to see if its something
he might be able to do with some help and save a couple of 
$, he says one mech. asked him for $250 just to take down
the tranny and tell him what was wrong. The clutch is not 
being looked at as a major possibility, though there is still
a chance it could be the problem. The reason for that assumption
is that my buddy says gear shifting was always smooth and 
the car never jerked (don't know if thats a valid reason to rule
it out). I hope the diagram might help a little. Thanks in 
advance for your insights. 

Mike '86 325 166k 

>I'm asking this on behalf of a friend, he was driving down I-40
>and tried to shift from 4th to a lower gear ( I believe it wasn't 3rd
>and that he was probably trying to explain to someone that it 
>wasn't possible to do so)  but the gear shift would not go in at 
>all, and thats when he had a little clink (the sound a small piece 
>of metal would make if it fell on the floor)  but thats the only sound 
>he says he heard, no grinding or anything like that, went back into 
>neutral and tried again, the proper way, it went in place in 3rd but 
>nothing picked up, the engine revved but nothing moved, he tried 
>2nd, 1st but nothing doing.  He eventually had the car towed. My 
>suspicion is that the one of the gear clips attached to the shift (hope
>I got it right) got out under pressure,

>(BTW  the car is an '85 325 more or less similar to mine),

 

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